Drive- Halsey Badlands

I am 18.
I am sitting on my bed in my new freshman dorm.
I am a fresh slate and free.

The Spinny Chair

      

I first stole the spinny chair in the corner of Mrs. McCann’s history class about a week into my freshman year of high school. It drove her crazy, and I proceeded to take it every class after, and when the year was up, I took it every time I stopped by, which was often. I’d walk in run and slide across the room on the chair while borderline yelling “MRS. MCCANNNNNNNNN”. She’d fake groan and then listen while I talked about whatever random topic I had on my mind that day or answer whatever questions I’d ask. Typically our conversations were for five minutes until the bell rang and her class started or she had a meeting to go to, and other days I hung out for close to an hour or more when I’d be stranded at school.

This had gone on for a while and my junior year things weren’t going very great. My life at home was a disaster, and on top of that I was in the middle of a raging internal war between my religion and my sexuality. My ability to keep up an optimistic persona was slacking, and so were my grades. I had Mrs. McCann again that year for AP Modern Euro and my performance in the class was a disaster. I stayed after class one day, moving from my regular seat to the spinny chair and calling her name across the room even though I’d never left the room, and pulled up to her desk. I could hear the fake positivity in my voice, and she could too. She brought up the lack of assignments I’d done for the class, and I fumbled to try and come up with an excuse, but she didn’t take it and she asked me what was actually going on.

I hesitated for a moment, then I decided to talk, but I only told half of the story. I told the story that gave enough details to show that I had a lot going on, but not the story that would potentially make things worse if they were out. I explained that I was in charge of my younger siblings until 8:30 at night every night, and that I wasn’t getting along well with my parents. It was just a portion, but it was enough. She listened to what I had to say, and that was that. Going forward, she was more understanding in regards to my work in class, and would check in quickly whenever I stopped by or hung back after class, but that was it.

It was not that it was a life changing situation, or she solved all my issues at home, but she had asked me about what was going on. I had other teachers who had been worried about me, ones that I overheard talking about me, emailing each other about my behaviors, calling home to my mother, etc. But none of them had reached out personally to me, or asked me how I was doing. She gave me a chance to speak, and showed me that she cared, and that was what I had needed at the time. I had felt like my life was out of my control, and she gave me some control over talking about what was going on.

Often times I would escape the chaos of my house and roller blade up and down my street. I did a lot of thinking at this time, and after that conversation, I often had further conversations with her in my head. In them I talked about my struggles with identity, I explained just how bad things had been at home, and I didn’t hold anything back. Eventually a few topics were talked about more deeply, and I came out to her during my senior year. But most of the time, she was just someone I knew I could go to if I needed to. The spinny chair was always an open seat, even if I was told no every time I took a seat.

Framing Youth

framing youth

Throughout the piece, Framing Youth, it is discussed how "Dominant discourses about youth...secure the weight of their voice(s) through repetition and reproduction in mainstream texts, popular culture, and "scientific" studies which naturalize them as a part of the "common sense" of American culture" (Bogad, 2). These dominant discourses about youth consider them inexperienced and figuring themselves out while having no control over themselves and their hormones.  This idea of a common sense of American culture is projected everywhere from media to everyday life creating a cycle of these ideas which continue to make youth appear as separate and lesser than adults. In addition, it projects an idea that youth is almost a "separate species" living in a world completely unknown and unable to be understood by their parents or any other adult.


Fiske is quoted stating, "social norms...have developed in the interests of those with social power, and they work to maintain their sites of power". This common sense of young people was formulated by adults in positions of power and exists to continue to limit the power youth have. In addition, as explained by Thorne, even adults who work with kids and young people, are subject to fall into the construct. Specifically, she explains that adults, "regard children as less complete versions of themselves".


These images are not only projected onto the youth by adults but ultimately, are taken on by young people as well, as it is made to be seen as the norm. By being viewed as misunderstood, and a single unit of youth, this ultimately leads to young people being underestimated and lacking a voice and power. This ultimately then can create a feeling of isolation from that which is important in the world, securing a feeling their own voices carry very little weight. In addition, often when a young person feels they do not fall into these commonsense categories that are created, they feel as though they need to prove that they are "not like other teens" or "not like most girls" their age, furthering the feelings of isolation and adding a competitive factor to the situation as well. For youth hoping to lead, this would likely challenge them in their attempts and create a damaging path towards successful leadership.

Hailee Steinfeld's "Most Girls" is a more positive, uplifting take

on the "I'm not like other girls/teens" idea

Youth Development Guide: K/L/M

K- Know: What does this reading reinforce in what you already know? 

One of the major aspects this reading reinforced was my understanding that Youth Work was deficit focused for so long, and that these programs were failing the youth of their communities. It also reinforced my understanding that there was a transition in the way Youth Work is and was done, once it was realized that the programs in place were not working. 

some DARE Imagery
(which is still being used in schools) 

L- Learn: What did you Learn about the history and practice of youth development? 

While what I had known were very vague topics, I learned a lot from the reading. 

In regards to the deficit approach, while I had an understanding of it as the way youth work was being done, I hadn't known it as the deficit approach specifically. I enjoyed the reading and getting a deeper understanding of how and why the deficit approach was used, and it's outcomes. One specific aspect of this is the chart on page six, which showed how the focus on youth deficits, led to different programming being provided to students based on their environment and how "at risk" they were labeled. 

As mentioned above, I had an understanding that there was a shift in the way youth services and youth development was approached, but I had not known how that transition occurred. I found it very beneficial to read and learn how they began to focus on encouraging resiliency in youth, and providing more equal services, or attempting to get all youth to an equal playing field in regards to resiliency. Also, that they began doing this by putting a focus on the communities in which young people are involved, whether at home, school, etc. 

I also had not known that this change in youth development practices was established on a political and policy level as well. 


M-More: What do you want to know more about? 

One aspect which I would like to know more about is how this is related to the way Youth work is done today. Specifically, When we've discussed YDEV ideologies in the past, programs such as DARE have been placed into the ideology level of Risk and Resiliency, yet they fall under the deficit approach here. While I know that there are differences in the ideologies and approaches, there seemed to be a bit of an overlap. 

Also, the reading mentioned a few statistics about funding for Youth programs in schools and communities in California, and I'm curious how that funding expanded or decreased over the years, and whether that program was successful or not?